Case in point: In order to deliver financial services globally, firms need their infrastructure to be scalable, easy to manage and flexible. At Red Hat and Nuage, we believe that legacy, proprietary networks and systems [must give way] to open hybrid clouds to avoid vendor lock-in. Yesterday’s static data center networking models require time-consuming manual programming that can delay the availability of network services to support cloud applications and make it difficult to scale to meet global operations. In this environment, increasingly data center infrastructure can leverage a virtualized, software-defined networking (SDN). A software defined network enables automation, is easier to manage than proprietary systems and provides the flexibility for supporting global business operations that fluctuate as demand dictates and that must be tailored to meet local business requirements.

Financial services firms also are facing new competitive threats from online companies like Apple Pay, Google Android Pay, Bitcoin and PayPal, which are forcing them to shift from decades-old processes to more agile ones. At the same time, they are facing a fast-moving and increasingly strict regulatory environment. To keep pace—or better yet, outpace—these pressures, firms need to deliver cloud-enabled financial services applications from a flexible and scalable platform that’s equally reliable and secure so that risks are mitigated and regulatory compliance is not compromised. Policy-based open hybrid clouds built with software-defined networking can address those security requirements that financial firms can’t afford to forsake.

The Red Hat and Nuage Networks SDN-based cloud solution is designed to provide financial services firms with an agile, flexible, and automated infrastructure so they can launch network services for cloud applications faster, reduce operational costs, and take full advantage of cloud technologies. It is application-centric, with built-in programmable business logic and a powerful policy engine so IT administrators can define network requirements once in simplified application terms and comply with resource policies across the infrastructure on a per tenant and per-application basis. There’s no manual intervention required, so administrators can focus on critical issues.

With the Red Hat and Nuage Networks SDN-based cloud solution, financial services firms can build scalable, application-centric clouds with flexible, automated network configuration and simplified network setup and secure multi-tenant capabilities. Firms are better equipped to deliver instantaneous network connectivity so cloud applications can go live more quickly. And they can cost-effectively capitalize on new market opportunities as they arise.

We’d love to hear if you are using SDN and open hybrid clouds as you navigate the dynamic financial services market. Let us know in the comments section below!